How “Conditions of Confinement” Impact “Conditions of Employment”: The Work-Related Well-Being of Provincial Correctional Officers in Atlantic Canada

Abstract

Internationally, researchers studying correctional officer (CO) work have examined CO self-presentation, staff-prisoner relationships, and emotional labor. We build on this research by drawing on occupational literature to examine officer mental health outcomes that result from correctional work. We examine the impact of working in prison on COs' well-being, paying particular attention to aspects of the work content (operational stressors) and context (organizational stressors). In conducting semi-structured interviews with COs in Atlantic Canada, we found that COs identified a number of operational stressors as impacting their mental health, specifically generalized violence among prisoners, direct and vicarious violence, and ongoing harassment. COs identified organizational stressors, including a work culture that discourages visible emotional responses to operational stressors, a lack of support from management, and inadequate procedures for dealing with workplace violence and harassment, as factors that exacerbate and contribute to negative mental health outcomes.

Gender and Prison Work: The Experience of Female Provincial Correctional Officers in Canada

“…While the emotional labor performed by officers can profoundly shape the correctional environment, it is not without a cost to the officers themselves. The emotional investment in female prisoners’ lives, combined with the lack of formal training in the area of compassion work, can result in emotional exhaustion (see Ricciardelli & Power, 2020; Ricciardelli, Power, et al, 2018). An officer explained:Although I didn’t mind working with females, I did good working with females.…”

“…Such changes relate to growing volatility and disarray driven by overcrowding, extensive time served on remand, changing drug culture in prison, and changes in the prisoner population (CANSIM, 2015; Crewe, 2005; Weinrath, 2009). In one particular prison in the study, multiple female participants reported having been physically assaulted by male prisoners on male units (some also reported being assaulted by female prisoners on female units; see Ricciardelli & Power, 2020). This particular institution was fraught with problems such as overcrowding, violence, contraband, and poor communication between staff, prisoners, and management; such structural problems may have mediated the nature of staff-prisoner dynamics.…”

Understanding Needs, Breaking Down Barriers: Examining Mental Health Challenges and Well-Being of Correctional Staff in Ontario, Canada

“…Such work can affect all those working in correctional services, beyond those who appear to work in direct and frequent contact with prisoners. Correctional services workers employed in institutional, community, or administrative roles share experiences of either direct (e.g., witnessing, intervening in incidents) or indirect (e.g., report reading) exposures to potentially psychologically traumatic events ( Perez et al, 2010 ; Bierie, 2012a ; Carleton et al, 2019 ; Ricciardelli and Power, 2020 ; Ricciardelli et al, 2020 ). Despite variation in the degree of exposure, experiencing potentially psychologically traumatic events in whatever form appears associated with an increased risk of screening positive for a mental disorder ( Carleton et al, 2018a , b ; Ricciardelli et al, 2018a , b ).…”

Lives saved: Correctional officers’ experiences in the prevention of prisoner death by suicide

“…Participant 75's words show that empathy is present, however, prison culture and the job itself leaves COs feeling they must not show their emotional responses to avoid being interpreted as ''sensitive'' or ''weak'' (Crawley, 2004;Nylander et al, 2011;Ricciardelli, 2019;Ricciardelli and Power, 2020). Formal conduct rules among COs that regulate displays of emotions at work operate alongside the informal conduct rules learned among colleagues at work.…”